My son just came home from a weekend spent at a local range learning to shoot through the NRA junior marksman program. The way this program works, as it is run at our local range through the CAP program, is that the kids spend a couple days at the range, shooting the club guns, and then they have an award ceremony at the end of the weekend to make a big hoorah for the kids' achievements.
The old codger who runs the range is a crotchety old guy, who I'd tagged as basically heart-of-gold with a crusty exterior. Figured he knew his stuff, elsewise how'd he get to be so old?
Apparently, when Jeremy was first handed one of the rifles, he did as I have always taught, and checked both by sight & by feel to be sure the firearm was unloaded. The RO said, "Don't do that! Just look, don't touch."
The RO did not want him to check by feel because the rifles -- all .22s -- were excessively dirty, with black greasy gunk everywhere. When he remarked on the dirt, the RO responded, "Oh, we never clean these rifles. That would disturb the accuracy and wear out the barrels faster. Fact is, some of these older guns probably have a million rounds through 'em. We just swab out the chambers every once in awhile is all."
*blink*
No skin off my nose, as these aren't my rifles.
But I'm left wondering. If the tale brought back to me by my kid is completely accurate, is there a safety issue with the uncleaned guns? I'd always heard that lead fouling could lead to overpressures and thus to Bad Things Happening. Of course, we're only talking about .22s after all so maybe that's not an issue.
Am I missing the boat here?
Discuss...
pax
The old codger who runs the range is a crotchety old guy, who I'd tagged as basically heart-of-gold with a crusty exterior. Figured he knew his stuff, elsewise how'd he get to be so old?
Apparently, when Jeremy was first handed one of the rifles, he did as I have always taught, and checked both by sight & by feel to be sure the firearm was unloaded. The RO said, "Don't do that! Just look, don't touch."
The RO did not want him to check by feel because the rifles -- all .22s -- were excessively dirty, with black greasy gunk everywhere. When he remarked on the dirt, the RO responded, "Oh, we never clean these rifles. That would disturb the accuracy and wear out the barrels faster. Fact is, some of these older guns probably have a million rounds through 'em. We just swab out the chambers every once in awhile is all."
*blink*
No skin off my nose, as these aren't my rifles.
But I'm left wondering. If the tale brought back to me by my kid is completely accurate, is there a safety issue with the uncleaned guns? I'd always heard that lead fouling could lead to overpressures and thus to Bad Things Happening. Of course, we're only talking about .22s after all so maybe that's not an issue.
Am I missing the boat here?
Discuss...
pax